Ithaca Blows Past St. Lawrence For First Victory of Season
Box Score (PDF)
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's tennis competed on its home turf for the first time this season when it hit the courts at Glazer Arena inside the Athletics & Events Center for a non-conference match against St. Lawrence University on Saturday. The Bombers got off to a fast start and never looked back in a convincing 8-1 victory over the Saints to even their record at 1-1 this spring.
Ithaca swept all three doubles flights and picked up victories in five-of-six singles flights on the day. The Bombers nearly completed the nine-flight sweep, but the Saints were able to avoid the shutout with a thrilling match that ended with the visitor's Alec Roslin outlasting freshman
Max Prestwich in a three-set thriller in the sixth flight.
The IC men got off to a hot start during the doubles portion. Ithaca's third-flight duo of senior
Nate Wolf and freshman
Colten Lavery worked well off of each other in scoring an 8-5 win over Eric Tecce and Spencer Whitmire to notch the first point. The Bombers' top-flight tandem of freshman
Minos Stavrakas and
Michael Gardiner followed with an 8-6 triumph shortly thereafter to up the advantage to 2-0.
The closest match of the doubles session came in the middle pairing. Senior
Wes Davis and junior
Lorenzo Viguie-Ramos locked in a tight battle against St. Lawrence's Marco Amendola and Dean Sponholz. The two sides traded punch-counter punch throughout their entertaining battle, bringing both teams to their feet during the final game. Davis and Viguie-Ramos won the decisive game 8-7 to take a commanding 3-0 lead into singles action.
The Bombers wasted little time sealing the match during singles. Ithaca picked up victories in the first five flights to run away with the contest.
Now playing solo, Gardiner made quick work of the Saints' Kevin Frommer in his third-flight singles bout. He shutout the visitor netter 6-0 in the first set, before coasting to a 6-3 win in the second to notch IC's fourth point. Stavrakas stretched his record to 7-0 in singles on the year, scoring the game-winning team point with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Sponholz in the top flight.
Lavery capped his strong day of action with a 7-5, 6-2 victory in the fourth-flight, while
Wes Davis closed out the first four singles matches with a three-set thriller. After dropping the opening set to St. Lawrence's Tecce, he roared back to win the second set 6-4. The pair traded points in the third-set super-breaker that went 20 total points, before Davis was able to pull out the 11-9 win.
Wolf picked up the Bombers' second three-set win in the singles portion following a similar blueprint to Davis. Falling behind by a set, he defeated Elliot Solandt 6-3 in the middle frame, before pulling out a 10-4 win the first-to-10 battle in the third set.
The Ithaca men return to action in two weeks when it heads to Orlando, Fla., for Spring Break. The Bombers kick off a week of action in the Sunshine State with a cross-divisional battle against Bloomsburg University on Monday, March 13.